Adolescents do not benefit from universal school-based mindfulness interventions: a reanalysis of Dunning et al. (2022).
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2024 Brian Galla, Aishwarya Karanam, Avital Pelakh et al. 13 citations
A reanalysis of 22 randomized controlled trials (16,558 adolescents) found that universal school-based mindfulness interventions do not reliably improve adolescent mental health. Compared to passive controls, mindfulness training actually reduced trait mindfulness slightly (d = -0.10). Compared to active controls, it improved anxiety/stress (d = 0.17) and wellbeing (d = 0.10), but against all controls combined, no outcomes—including anxiety, depression, attention, or social behavior—showed significant benefit (effect sizes ranged from 0.01 to 0.26). No effects persisted at follow-up. These results question the value of existing school-based mindfulness programs as a universal prevention strategy for adolescents.